A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.5

v2.c19.s6.t3.5

The Bodhisattva sojourns in the heaven of the Contented (Tuṣita) gods in a magnificent heavenly palace. (The Bodhisattva receives over a hundred laudatory titles and the heavenly palace in which he lives, receives over a dozen.) Amid the sound of 84,000 drums he is invited to descend to earth in order to commence his work of salvation. After long consultations, in which the advantages and defects of a large number of royal families are weighed in the balance, the Bodhisattva decides to be reborn in the house of King Śuddhodana, and in the womb of Queen Māyā, as she possesses all the qualities of the mother of a Buddha. As perfect as her beauty (described down to the minutest detail) is her virtue and purity. She alone, of all the women of India, is able to bear the future Buddha, as the strength of ten thousand elephants is combined in her. With the aid of the gods the conception takes place, after the Bodhisattva has decided to penetrate into the womb in the shape of an elephant. The gods not only procure a heavenly dwelling as the confinement chamber for Māyā, but they also create a jewelled palace in her womb, so that the Bodhisattva shall not be defiled for ten months by the mother’s womb. In this jewelled palace he has a beautifully soft seat. His body radiates in glorious beauty, and a light shines out for miles from the body of his mother. The sick come to Māyā Devī and are cured of their sufferings as soon as she lays her hand on their heads. “And whenever she looked to her right, she saw the Bodhisattva in her womb, as one sees one’s own face in a clear mirror.” While still in the womb the unborn Bodhisattva delights the gods with pious preaching, and the god Brahman obeys his every hint.[^1)